Regina Dei Pirati
by PainInUrAft-Nexy
Summary: Captain Steel is renowned throughout the world for being cruel, calculating and ruthless. But what happens when the man attempting to steal Reaver's title as the Pirate King is actually female - and the abandoned child of King Sparrow at that?
1. Vendetta

A black cat slunk warily across her field of vision as her heavy boots clunked across the wooden floor. She watched him out of the corner of her eyes as he slunk off the gangplank. As soon as he hit dry land he disappeared behind a stack of barrels, probably off to find something to eat.

She turned back to the city in front of her. It certainly was fouler smelling than she had remembered, and there seemed to be more beggars on the side of the roads. She passed all of them without even blinking, until one of them had the audacity to grab her coat.

"Please miss; spare some coin for a starving man?" Without hesitation she pulled her sword from her hilt, aiming it directly at the man's throat.

"If you want to keep that arm, you'll release me immediately." She spoke simply and sternly. He jumped backwards at the threat and cold green eyes glanced back at the street ahead of her, continuing on as if she hadn't just threatened to chop a man's arm off. "Have a pleasant day."

She turned the corner and walked straight into Bowerstone Old Town, the houses and smells exactly as they were 7 years ago, bringing back fond memories of her childhood. She pushed that all away as she stepped up to the door. She would rather not relive those memories again, rather not even be here. But she had an obligation to her mother. She would not abandon her as her father had abandoned them all those years ago. She visited her as often as her life would allow her, which was not as often as she would like.

Her gloved hand reached up to knock loudly on the heavy wooden door. She stared at a crack in the ground until it opened. Every bit of her body screamed at her to run, to get away from here. She was only causing more damage in the long run. Maybe she wouldn't be home and she could just continue on her way without-

The door opened. Fate was a cruel mistress indeed. Graying brown hair caressed her mother's wrinkled shoulders as the breeze from the door blew it backwards. Dull green eyes looked at her for a moment before recognition flickered across her face. "Stella! You're back again! Oh it's been so long since I've seen you!"

A wave of discomfort washed through her at the sound of her name. It had been years since someone had spoken to her and not the Captain everyone knew her to be. She was quickly ushered into the dilapidated old house before sitting at the table, grasping her wrinkled old hand in hers again before she fluttered to the stove to make some tea.

"It's good to see you, mother. You're looking well." Her mother, Alex, looked back at her, some of the fire coming back into her eyes as she chuckled and said, "What you mean by that is, 'Good Avo you've gotten old!'"

She smiled broadly back at her, flipping her golden curls over her shoulder. "No, you're still looking as radiant as ever. I'm sure you still get proposals twice a week, if not more."

At this her mother's face dropped considerably. She brought her a teacup full of the steaming hot liquid. She chuckled a little mirthlessly while appearing to wrestle something out in her own mind. Finally she blurted, "The payments from your father have stopped. I had some saved up from the excess he was sending our way but…" She pursed her lips as Stella set her cup on the table with a clang, "I received a letter from Logan. He said that he was unsure why his father was sending, what he assumed to be bribe money to some poor old woman in Bowerstone, but whatever blackmail I had was surely not worth dying for." She looked away as if she were ashamed. Stella stood from her seat, hand flying to the hilt of her sword. Fury bubbled in her chest, barely contained beneath gritted teeth.

"He cannot-!" She started furiously before Alex had glanced sharply at her to silence her. "Oh, but he already has. A few years back, in fact. I've been struggling to make the rent the last few months and-" Stella quickly interrupted, hand going to dig in her breeches. "The money isn't an issue mother. I will pick up where that filth has left off." A large, heavy coin purse hit the table with a resounding clink. "It's the audacity of them! Thinking they can pay us off to live our lives in silence, while they live in luxury. The nerve that we should no longer have to be quiet! The outright boldness-"

Her mother, graceful as ever in her old years, raised her hand and spoke quietly. "Quiet yourself Stella. Your father was a good man. He did his best to provide for us." Green eyes flashed indignantly, not trusting herself to say anything else she shook her head furiously.

"Now onto other topics, where exactly did you get coin like that, to just flaunt around however you please?"

Stella stiffened. Her mother still didn't know, and she would rather like to keep it that way. Taking her hand off of her sword she simply retorted, "I have a job, and I'm very good at what I do."

A smirk lifted the corners of Alex's sagging face. "You consider being a pirate a job?"

Her jaw dropped, astonished, "How did you know?" Her mother merely laughed and brushed some of the curls from her daughters face. "There were many hints; the sword, the scars littering your arms and shoulders, the tattoo, your clothes." She glanced disapprovingly at her. "And then of course, there were less subtle things, such as the Wanted posters littering the Bowerstone Industrial docks."

A frustrated groan left her lips before moving her hand up to smack her forehead. Of course she had seen those. Her mother was old, not blind. "I should have told you." Her mother nodded, but spoke softly. "But you would not have. Pride is something that runs very deeply in our family. Now, I'm sure you have some extremely important matters to attend to in the city, Captain Steel." The title was spoken proudly, which astounded Stella a tad, "Pirates don't just stop in to say hello to their senile old mothers."

And with a nod, and a kiss to her forehead, Stella was out the door, once again the formidable Captain Steel. Emotion receded into the far corner of her mind, only allowing herself weakness around her mother. Only allowing herself to be Stella around her mother.

Her hand went to her hilt as a gunshot rang through the air, from the general direction of the docks. The captain's eyes rolled. Her men were causing trouble again, and someone was going to pay. She was in no mood for them today.

Upon stepping onto the gangplank, she noticed that they were all assembled near the port side, standing with their weapons drawn. One of the crew members was being held by the collar of his shirt by a man in an impeccably white suit, gun to his head. As she drew closer she could hear him taunting the almost-airborne man.

"Please, you expect me to believe that? I know your captain was here recently, you've only been in port for a mere 2 hours. Now, what is your captains business in Bowerstone?" The man's voice was positively jovial, holding only a hint of a threat at the end. The musical sound of steel unsheathing itself caused him to look towards her immediately.

"My business in Bowerstone is my own." She took a few confident steps towards the man. "You had better have a damn good reason for stepping aboard my ship and threatening my men." Her voice dropping to a deadly threat, as cold as the name she was famous for.

The man laughed, putting a bullet in between the eyes of the unfortunate man he was holding. He let the body thump to the ground as he turned to face her. She found the eyes of her second in command and gave him a silent order to wait. She would hear him out before she cut him to bits.

"You claim to be the captain, girl? You are the great 'Captain Steel'?" He put quotations around her title with his fingers. She walked towards him slowly, sizing him up. He was taller than her, but moved with extreme grace. He would be fast and nearly as agile as she, but he had a gun, where she had a sword. She circled to the door of her quarters and stopped, sword positioned threateningly between the two.

"I do not claim to be anything. I am Captain Steel, and you have mere seconds to explain to me exactly who you are, and what you are doing on my ship before I cut your head off." Her eyes narrowed, trying to make it clear to him that she was not fooling around.

He did nothing but laugh merrily before spinning his pistol on his forefinger and dropping it into its holster. "My dear girl, I am Reaver, and I merely came to see the competition for my title." He leaned forward on a cane which she had not noticed before.

She tilted her head to the side slightly, not letting the sword waver for a moment. "Reaver? The Pirate King? " She barked out a laugh. "I am not trying to steal your title. I had no intention of killing you until you stepped foot onto my ship."

He hummed at her and let his brown eyes rove over her form, almost as if he was undressing her with his eyes. "You can try," he finally let out lightly, not seeming to take the situation as seriously as she did. "But I'm afraid you would fail miserably. And I may not mind sharing the title if it means I am to have a Queen." A cheshire grin spread across his face as he tapped his chin with a gloved finger, straightening to his full height. "I may even let your illegal docking at my docks slip, for a price that is." His eyes moved to undress her again and she moved forward, slashing her sword faster than most would have been able to register movement.

He raised his arm and back stepped just as quickly as she had moved. Her sword only caught fabric. She paused, now less than a foot from him. He glanced down at the slash in his sleeve, frowning. "Now now, that wasn't very kind of you. Have you any idea how much a coat like this costs to have repaired?" He shook his head, brown eyes glittering with mirth. "As absolutely pleasurable as this was, I'm afraid I have some business to attend to in my factories," quicker than she could move forward to slash at him again, he had raised his gun, shot behind her and holstered it again, smirking devilishly. "And I would heavily advise against following me." He took a few steps off the ship as she turned around to see her second in command laying dead on the ground, a bullet between his eyes.

She froze. How had he moved so fast? She had hero blood in her veins, and even she couldn't have made a shot like that. His musical voice sounded, farther down the street. "Tatty-Bye!"

She pulled out her gun and messily shot two of her crewmembers in the head before cursing and stomping to her room. She turned back momentarily to snap, "Clean that up and raise anchor. If we're not out on the open seas in 5 minutes, someone's head will adorn the bow!"

She slammed the door, heavy boots thudding against the wood floor. She sheathed her sword in the hilt at her hip and paced back and forth.

Pirate king or not, Reaver would pay.

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Hello readers! My name is Nexy and I will be your host for the duration of the story. R&R Appreciated, also constructive criticism welcomed. This is my first Fable story, and I'm very excited! Next chapter should be up soon!


	2. Clandestino

There was an itching in her skin. Restlessness, she supposed. She knew her crew felt it too. Land had come into sight, less than an hour ago, and it was welcomed with open arms. They were docking now, the crew bustling about to make the proper arrangements for their arrival. They were planning on staying for a while; restocking and relaxing as it were.

Bloodstone had become slightly run-down since the "illustrious" pirate king had left for Bowerstone. But that would be his loss and her gain, because she was making her way to the large and hopefully very abandoned mansion on the top of the hill. She had three of her best man, and her best woman following along with her, just in case something went awry.

She walked past the shining metal gates, which were open and glinting in the sun. The flowers around the circular walkway were all overgrown and dead though - in the past - they were most likely neatly primed and kept in pristine condition.

"Rich, go do a perimeter search. Station yourself at the front door when you're done." He nodded and set off to work swiftly, without a word. She walked up the stone steps as quietly as possibly, her heavy boots thumping with every step, and the old stone crumbling slightly under her weight. She unsheathed her sword and motioned for the others to do the same. Upon trying the handle, she discovered it was locked; she sheathed her sword and pulled out a lock pick set.

The tumblers clacked and groaned under her ministrations, and finally clicked to tell her she had picked the lock successfully. She picked up her sword and walked through the door.

The door scraped along the floor, disturbing the dust and sending it flying into her face. She coughed and waved it away, motioning for her men to light some of the candles and let some light into the room. There were no foot prints on the floor, so it was safe to assume no one had been there in quite some time.

She sheathed her sword and looked to the only other woman in the group. A gruff looking woman, she had cut her hair boyishly short, and had a scar that reached from one ear to the underside of her jaw. Stella had been told she had killed her parents at a young age, before resorting to a life of piracy. She would have killed her parents too, if they had named her something as clunky as Maude.

"Maude, go into the town and get as many willing servants to clean the house as you can. You two can stay and explore or head to the tavern." She dug in her belt and threw a bag of coins at her, before turning back to the house. The others left silently as she grabbed a candle and made her way deeper into the house. She went straight, down the small hallway and tried open the heavy wooden door, which was stuck. She had to set the candle stick down to pull it open, the wood groaning in protest as clouds of dust flew into her face, causing her to cough uncontrollably.

She raised the candelabra, trying to scatter the light across the large room; which was mostly empty, save for the bookcases against the walls and a large fireplace at the end. She made her way to the fireplace and bent over it, stirring the long dried out, half burnt wood. Lowering one of the candles to the wood it quickly caught fire, and she looked around the half-lit room more closely. There was a bookcase that had slid to the side to reveal a secret passage that went down into some tunnels. She would have her men explore those later.

She ran her fingers over the leather bound books, before hitting one with her hand that was sticking out at an odd angle. Upon finding that she could not, in fact, pull it out, she instead tried to push it in. The book made a clicking sound and the entire bookcase started to slide right, covering up the tunnels. She hummed her approval at such an odd piece of machinery.

She turned her back on the room and continued up the stairs, glancing behind her as a shape in the corner startled her. In the dim light she could make it out to be a chair and she berated herself mentally for being so paranoid.

Continuing on her way, she found an overhang into the study she had just come from. That would either prove useful or deadly, only time would tell.

She turned and walked into a room with nothing more than chairs and side tables, and simply continued on.

Up two flights of stairs and she found two bedrooms and another overhand which led into the entryway. The door opened and 6 women walked in. She scanned them carefully before finding her crewman coming up behind them. Maude and the other two had found some servant girls, willing to work for coin.

They entered the darkened house wearily, as if afraid of what might jump out of the shadows at them any moment.

Stella used this to her advantage, vaulting off of the railing and landing with a heavy thud on the floor in front of them. At least 4 of the 6 of them screamed. Her crewmates smirked at her before applauding in a smarmy fashion.

She ignored them in favor of the terrified young women. A predatory grin lit up her face as they tried to regain their composure. "Welcome to the House of Steel, ladies. You've agreed to accept our coin as payment to clean the house, yes?"

They all nodded quickly, never taking their eyes off the imposing woman in front of them. Her grin spread to her eyes. "Good. I want new candles in the chandeliers and candelabras immediately, new sheets on the beds, and all of this dust cleaned out. You can come to any of my men if you need coin for the acquisitions and you will address me as Captain Steel." The smirk disappeared in favor of a blank face. "Get to work."

They all skittered off immediately, looking as if she were about to turn into a demon and devour them all. She walked towards the door and her men sidestepped her, knowing better than to get in her way.

She walked down the street, ignoring the whore's offers to bed her, and the people who stared. If the people in Bloodstone didn't know who she was, then they soon would. She stepped into the seedy tavern that was down the street and walked up to the bar, taking a seat and tapping her knuckles on the wooden counter to signal that she wanted some service. The night had just begun after all. She ordered ale and turned around to glance at the denizens of the bar.

Most of the whores were fat and busting out of every article of clothing they had, she noticed with a cringe and a turn of her lip. The men were all like the ones she had on her ship. Not too bad on the eyes, but nothing spectacular enough for her to bother trying to get them home with her.

One of the aforementioned sailors came up next to her as she was scanning the crowd. He slid into the seat near her and slid closer, so that his thigh was touching hers, forcing her attention on him.

She turned to the man and was met with grey-blue eyes, a color she would have attributed to an early morning expecting rain. His eyes were the only nice thing about him though, as his matted brown hair mixed with his beard and his skin was reddened and burnt. The stench of booze floated on his breath and assaulted the esteemed captain's nose. She curled her lip over her teeth and snarled, "If you do not remove yourself from my immediate presence, I'm going to splatter your disgusting brains all over the floor."

The man did not heed her words, instead smiling at her and showing rotten teeth. He leaned in close as if to whisper something in her ear and slid his hand up her thigh, trying to get to the junction between her legs. With a roll of her eyes she flicked her gun from its holster and blew his brains out, just as she had promised. A few of the women in the bar screamed at the sudden gunshot and she holstered her gun, reaching for the warm ale in front of her.

The dark liquid slipped passed her lips, smooth and full of so many spices it nauseated her. A hand tapping her shoulder interrupted her sipping of the vile liquid and she turned to find 3 angry men behind her. She raised a blonde eyebrow at them cynically.

"Ay! Who do you think ye' are, whore? You'll pay fer killin' Harry like that!"

A feral grin spread across her face. "Would you like to take this outside gentlemen?" The three men exchanged confused glances at each other. Finally one of them scoffed.

"Take this outside to do what, wench? You think you can take all three of us? Even for a man that is no fair match."

A gunshot rang out through the tavern followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. The men turned to look at their newest fallen companion. The flintlock pistol hung in the air between them, pointed at the tallest ones head. "Did that even the odds? Or would you like me to take it down another notch?" She cocked her head to the side as he opened his mouth to speak, firing two more shots in rapid succession, one hitting him in the heart and the other in the head. He fell to the ground, dead.

"There I decided for you. Now, how would you like to die? Bullet to the head? Or would you rather I chop you to bits?" A sickly sweet smile spread across her face.

The man's face turned red with rage and he pulled a cutlass out of its hilt, pointing it directly at her. "You will die for your crimes against my brothers tonight." The pistol went back into its holster as she stood to step outside, wary of the man still pointing a sword at her now turned back.

As soon as her feet hit dirt, he lunged.

She danced out of the way, sidestepping lightly to the side and pulling her sword out with a flourish.

"Now now, that's not very nice, making the first move whilst I am unarmed and my back is turned." Her eyes sparkled in the dim light. People started gathering around them to see the fight unfold. He did not respond to her, merely lunging at her again, attempting to stab her in the midsection. She twirled out of the way with as much finesse as a cat.

"What a shame, no witty banter to go along with our fight? And here I was, hoping terribly for at least a few pathetic comebacks from the half delusional pirate who picked a fight with Captain Steel." She was baiting him with her name, and it was working. The people around them started whispering feverously. Her legacy preceded her.

He lunged once more, and she twisted out of the way, spinning at the last second to slash at his back and plant a boot firmly on the newly cut skin, causing a scream of pain. As soon as he hit the ground she shifted her weight forward, pressing into the cut and keeping him pinned to the ground. Without batting an eyelash she plunged her sword deep into the man's heart, stopping the screams in a gurgle of blood and pain, and stepped away.

She wiped the glistening blade on the dark fabric of her pants, smiling to herself when the people parted as she walked back into the tavern and ordered herself another ale. It was on the house.

As she was drinking she noticed a small man with bright orange hair and glittering weasel-like eyes staring at her. Which was not unusual, considering her position and looks; but this man was very obviously on a job, and was not very good at hiding it.

She drank her ale in peace and quiet and watched him slip out from the corner of her eyes, rising from the bar as soon as he was out the door. She felt the eyes in the room move with her and took to the shadows as soon as she was outside. The man was walking down the street, glancing over his shoulder every few seconds as if he was afraid someone was following him. She would have to be discreet.

He walked quickly, breathing labored and fast paced, almost as if he were trying to outrun her. As if he knew she was there. Impossible. There was no way he had figured her out so soon, even after weaving down numerous alleyways to shake her off. He had stopped in the middle of an empty square of town, and spun around to face darkness, screaming, "I know you'we thewe. Stop following me!"

She paused for a moment, taken aback by how quickly she had been discovered; and by a peculiar little man with a speech impediment. She had started to step out when a figure clad in blue stepped into the light.

"Ah, Mr. Hatch, is it? I'm a tad surprised at how quickly you managed to notice me lurking in the shadows behind you. I suppose you also know why I'm here." The man, 'Mr. Hatch', nodded.

She examined the man in blue carefully. He had short brown hair which was cropped closely to his head and he was clean shaven. He was dressed impeccably in blue, the fabric shining in the light and seemingly expensive. He looked like a noble, or someone else of high stature.

"Good. And I expect you'll tell me what I want to know?" The man in blue asked nonchalantly, pulling his blade out as if merely examining it in the moonlight. An obvious threat.

The unsightly little man nodded quickly, offering a hand to shake. "Of couwse siw, I don't get paid neawly enough to lose my life over some wuddy mission like this." The man's impediment made her cringe. "Bawwy. Bawwy Hatch at youw sewvice."

The other man, also visibly annoyed by the impediment made no move to shake Barry's hand, leaving him to drop it awkwardly to his side.

"I am Captain Tobias Bridge. Now, tell me little man, who exactly do you get paid by?" Captain Steel, who was still lurking in the shadows, narrowed her eyes dangerously. This was her closest rival on the open seas, aside from Reaver, who had made no other moves on her than coming aboard her ship and shooting two of her men.

Barry cringed and spat the name like it was poison on his tongue. "Weaver."

She leaned in closer to hear the conversation better, hand moving to her gun instinctively.

"Reaver, you say? What interest does Reaver have in Bloodstone? He abandoned this town long ago." Tobias mused, dragging one gloved hand up the sharpened side of his blade.

Barry shook his head quickly. "Hawdly. He keeps a close eye on all of his estates. And he has also been keeping a close eye on that woman… Captain Steel." He whispered her name softly; as if it saying louder than a whisper would summon her.

Bridge's curiosity was obviously peaked; he sheathed his sword and started circling the little red haired man, like a shark about to devour its prey. "Steel," he growled out lowly, "that woman has grated on my nerves since she first took control of that bloody ship, 'The Executioner'. Hah! What a bloody horrible name for a ship."

Though she was extremely offended at him insulting her ship, she was even more offended that Reaver, of all people, had been spying on her. And she had yet to catch the fool doing it. Her hand tightened around the handle of her pistol. She was about to make a hasty decision that would cost her information.

"How," Bridges continued, "exactly does he manage to spy on her without her catching onto them?"

Barry started fiddling with his hands, obviously getting more and more nervous by the minute. Pirates weren't known for being particularly forgiving, especially to those with an abundance of information; like Barry. "It's one of hew cwoo-mates. He pwetends to send a lettew to his mothew when they dock."

She knew exactly who he was talking about. Jenkins. He would pay when she returned to the mansion.

"Interesting," Tobias mused, stroking his bearded chin with his hands and looking deep in thought for a moment before looking down at the shorter man with a glint in his eye.

"I'm also following Steel, though she's known about me coming for her for some time. You see, we're both after a very powerful artifact. Something called the tha kléfti̱s to̱n-"

His speech was interrupted by a large cracking sound, followed by a piercing pain in his lower abdomen. He looked up at the source of the sound, finding Steel standing half concealed in the shadows with her gun aimed towards him, face contorted in fury.

She knew what he was about to say, and where his little mole would take it. He had known he wouldn't win the race against the aptly named Pirate Queen, and so, to spite her, he would let the biggest treasure she was looking for go to the only one who could beat her.

Reaver.

Tobias smiled, his straight whitened teeth glinting in the moonlight as he took his last gasping breaths and stained them with blood before falling face first onto the ground, face still contorted in that self righteous smirk. Even death would not claim his victory from him. She turned to Barry, aiming for him next, to find he was already gone. Off into the shadows and hiding in a hole like the little weasel he was.

She could not let that gem fall into his hands. She needed it for a reason.

She needed it to overthrow the monarchy.

Again.

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Thank you again for reading! Please R&R and any constructive criticism is welcomed!


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